Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of adding information to an image of a printing target.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a technique of adding information to a printing target image and printing it has been known. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-217086, adding information including letters such as “confidential” or “important” and figures such as a production date of a printed material to the printed material is discussed. Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-217086, selecting an area to add the information from options such as “upper left”, “upper middle”, “upper right”, “lower left”, “lower middle”, “lower right” of a document is discussed.
Further, using a cassette and a sheet manual feed tray provided in a printing apparatus as a sheet supply source of sheets to be used for printing is known.
In a case where a cassette is used as a sheet supply source, a sheet size stacked on the cassette (e.g., A4 and B5) can be specified by a user to control printing of an image based on the received sheet size. Alternatively, it is possible to automatically detect lengths of a sheet in a main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction based on guide positions provided in the cassette.
On the other hand, in a case where a sheet manual feed tray is used as a sheet supply source, the sheet size of a sheet placed on the sheet feed tray (e.g., A4 and B5) can be specified by a user. However, there are some printing apparatuses having a configuration in which a length of a sheet in the main scanning direction can be detected, but a length of the sheet in the sub-scanning direction (i.e., sheet conveyance direction) cannot be detected, based on the guide positions provided in the sheet manual feed tray. In the printing apparatus having such a configuration, a user has to designate the sheet size of the sheet that the user has placed on the sheet manual feed tray without fail, and it is a troublesome for the user. Therefore, to solve such a problem, it is known to prepare an option of “free-size”.
When the “free-size” is set as the size of a sheet placed on the sheet manual feed tray, the printing apparatus starts printing an image on the sheet without knowing the length of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction. In this case, if the length of the printing target image in the sub-scanning direction is shorter than the length of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction, the image can be printed within the sheet. However, in a case where the length of the printing target image in the sub-scanning direction is longer than the length of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction, for example, in an electrophotographic method printing apparatus, an image is developed on a photosensitive drum, but the image is not transferred onto a sheet because the length of the sheet is not enough.
Meanwhile, as for adding information to the printing target image described above, the upper right, lower right, upper left, and lower left of a sheet can be selected as an area to add information. In this case, the trailing end side area of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction may be selected. If the length of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction is preliminarily know, information can be added at a position suitable for the length of the sheet. However, if “free-size” is set, printing of an image is started in a state where the length of the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction is not known by the printing apparatus. As a result, the information is not added at a suitable position, and the position of the information to be added may possibly be located out of the printed sheet.